Texas became the latest in a group of states led by Republican governors on Monday to announce the end of federal unemployment benefits approved by Congress to ease the financial blow of the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that the aid discourages workers to rejoin the workforce.
The governor of the state, Greg Abbott, announced this afternoon that he agreed with the United States Department of Labor that workers who lost their jobs in that state will no longer receive compensation for the health emergency.
This includes the end of the extra weekly payment of $ 300.
Termination of benefits
will be effective on June 26, 2021.
"The Texas economy is booming and employers are hiring in communities across the state," Abbott said in its announcement.
"According to the Texas Workforce Commission, the number of job openings in the state is nearly identical to the number of Texans receiving unemployment benefits."
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Abbott said its decision was also based on the fact that, according to the Commission, "nearly 18% of all claims for unemployment benefits during the pandemic have been confirmed or suspected to have been fraudulent."
The governor assured that the current vacancies are "well paid" and that almost 45% of the available jobs in Texas offer wages above $ 15.50 per hour.
A growing group of employers around the country have slightly increased wages for their thousands of job openings.
This amid the difficulties faced in filling them, despite the fact that the unemployment report for April, the most recent, showed that unemployment rates in the United States rose slightly, even when a record improvement was expected.
Walmart, the largest private sector employer, announced raises for 425,000 employees in February, raising its median wage above $ 15 an hour.
The nation's second-largest private employer, Amazon, said in April that more than 500,000 of its workers would see wage increases of between 50 cents and $ 3 an hour.
Costco also raised its minimum wage to $ 16 an hour earlier this year.
Texas follows other Republican-ruled states in announcing the end of unemployment benefits due to the pandemic:
Mississippi, Arkansas, South Carolina and Montana have already done so.
President Joe Biden has previously argued that "there are no measurements" that indicate federal benefits discourage unemployed people from looking for work.
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"I know that some employers are having problems filling jobs, but what this report shows is that there is a much bigger problem," said the president at the beginning of May. "It is that our economy still has 8 million fewer jobs than when This pandemic started.
The data shows that more workers are looking for work and many cannot find them. "
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said earlier this month that nothing in the data suggests that improved unemployment benefit is the reason people are out of work.
But, he added, "this is regional, and it is appropriate that the governors of the different regions respond to what is happening in their regional labor market."
Millions of adults have said in surveys that they are not working for fear of contracting or spreading COVID-19.
And many people certainly receive more money in the form of federal and state unemployment benefits than they would earn in available jobs.
Another reason for the disincentive for citizens to fill available positions is that
businesses are reopening before schools, so some parents have no one to leave their children with
if they go to work. On the other hand, some unemployed do not have the necessary skills for the jobs that are open, or are not willing to change careers.